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When the moon hits the sky…

…like a big pizza pie, that’s amore.

Words can’t express my love for home-made pizza. It’s become a real Friday night tradition in our house and it’s so easy to make. If you’d like to have a go, here’s how I do it. The base is pinched from the wonderful Rick Stein and the sauce is my own recipe. This will make 1 big pizza, which will feed 2 really hungry people for a main meal or 4-6 as a snack. Before you begin, put your pizza stone or baking tray into the oven and turn the oven on as high as it will go.

For the base:

I tspn easy blend yeast

1 cup strong bread flour

I tspn olive oil

1/4 tspn salt

Warm water

I do this in the food processor for quickness, but you could easily do it by hand. Add the dry ingredients and the oil into the bowl, in the following order yeast, flour, oil, salt. Gradually add warm water until the dough comes together, then let the processor knead for a bit (or knead by hand for 5 or 10 minutes). Pop in a bowl, cover in cling and put in the fridge for 30-60 minutes.

For the Sauce:

4 cloves of garlic

olive oil

1.5 tins of chopped tomatoes

1 tspn dried oregano

1 tspn sugar

salt to taste

dash tabasco/Louisiana hot sauce (optional)

Chop the garlic very, very finely and gently fry in the olive oil, not allowing it to turn brown. Add a tin of tomatoes and allow to reduce and turn and nice dark red. Add the salt, sugar, oregano and hot sauce if required. When the tomatoes have no excess liquid, add the remaining 0.5 tins and allow the whole mixture to reduce and darken until again, you have no excess liquid (adding the tomatoes in 2 {or more if making more pizzas} seems to give the sauce more depth of flavour than adding them all at the same time).

Remove the dough from the fridge (it should be all nice and puffy), knead again a little bit and roll out into a big circle-ish shape (approx 300mm diameter) (if your dough is a little too wet and sticky, you’ll need to add some flour to your rolling pin and surface). Take your stone or tray from the oven and sprinkle a little semolina on it (this is optional, but helps the base to crisp a little). Put your rolled dough on the stone and spoon on the sauce. Add some mozzarella and your favourite toppings, drizzle with oil (omit this stage if you’re using pepperoni) and bake (with your oven still on the highest setting) for 10 minutes or so until the cheese is a lovely golden brown.

Serve with a nice glass of chianti or montepulciano and enjoy – perfect for a nice relaxing evening with friends.